Advances in communication infrastructures and devices have turned standard communication devices into versatile communication tools. People communicate with each other, and with other electronic devices, over networks ranging from Local Area Networks (LANs) to wide reaching Global Area Networks (GANs) such as the Internet. Wireless communications devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like are often designed to interface with such networks as well as with their local surroundings using short-range wireless technologies.
Today, such wireless devices are being used for a variety of different types of communication. For example, current and anticipated mobile phone technologies have transformed wireless devices into powerful tools capable of capturing and communicating voice, data, images, video, and other multimedia content. Mobile phones, at one time solely a voice communication tool, now often typically include data messaging capabilities such as text messaging such as short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), etc.
However, these messaging capabilities often require corresponding messaging accounts. For example, a mobile phone user who wants to send and/or receive e-mails via his/her mobile phone must establish some e-mail account in order to engage in e-mail communication. However, there are a high number of individuals who do not have a prior e-mail account, or who do not have a personal computer whereby an existing e-mail account/address would be likely. This is particularly true in developing markets. Also, there are individuals who may already have an e-mail account(s) established, but do not want to use that e-mail account on a mobile device and therefore want to have another e-mail box with the mobile device. Thus, these people have to take action to determine with whom an account can be created, and how to configure any such account. There are also security concerns with current configuration methodologies, as a malicious configuration package may arrive at the device, and the user faces a potentially serious risk.
Another problem primarily affects mobile device users, where user interface mechanisms may be more difficult to manipulate. For example, many mobile phones do not have a standard keyboard (e.g., QWERTY keyboard), but rather have a numeric keypad with alpha character capabilities. It can be difficult and time-consuming to enter the information required to establish a new service account or configure an account via such a limited UI device. These limitations can also complicate activating an existing e-mail account on such a device.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for a manner of efficiently and easily establishing and/or configuring service accounts on communication devices. The present invention fulfills these and other needs, and offers other advantages over the prior art.